The early-stage ATA (AT Attachment, or currently called IDE interface) transmission interface is used in hard discs or compact discs and functions as the bridge between CPU and a hard disc to implement the mass and fast data transference therebetween. With the progress of technology, various extensions have been derived from such a transmission interface, for example, Ultra ATA, Ultra ATA/66, and currently prevailing Ultra ATA/100. Those derived standards not only can obviously increase the correctness of data transmission but also can greatly promote the transmission rate to as high as 100 MB/sec. Owing to the persistent technological advance, the industry further provides a new standard—SATA (serial ATA), which is also an extension of ATA and maintains original ATA hardware standard but transforms the signal transmission terminals from the original parallel mode (such as SCSI and parallel ports) to a serial mode (such as USB and IEEE1394). Thereby, SATA not only can provide a transmission rate as high as 150 MB/sec but also can support the hot-plug function and is compatible with the software and the drive program of the current parallel ATA. Therefore, SATA is superior to current standards. Furthermore, second generation SATA has also appeared, and its transmission rate can reach even 300 MB/sec.
A power supply is usually installed to a computer or a server to transform AC current into stable DC currents of different voltages and provide power for peripherals. The abovementioned power supply generally has +12V, +5V, and +3V DC outputs, which are usually conducted by an IDE 4-pin power connector or a SATA power connector. The 4-pin power connector outputs +12V and +5V DC, and SATA power connector outputs +12V, +5V, and +3.3V DC. For the detailed data, please refer to Taiwan Patent publication No.M279907 “Collinear Device for SATA and Peripherals”, wherein there are four wires to provide power for 4-pin power connector, including: the first yellow wire, which outputs +12V DC, the second black wire and the third black wire, which are ground wires, and the fourth red wire, which outputs +5V DC; there are five wires to provide power for a SATA power connector, including: the first yellow wire, which also outputs +12V DC, the second black wire, which is ground wire, the third red wire, which outputs +5V DC, the fourth black wire, which is also ground wire, and the fifth orange wire, which outputs +3.3V DC. From those described above, it is known: as to the numbers of output wires, there is a difference between a 4-pin power connector (4 wires) and a SATA power connector (5 wires); as to the output DC powers, there is both a difference and a commonness between a 4-pin power connector and a SATA power connector. In the practice of power supplies, a 4-pin power connector and a SATA power connector respectively use four wires and five wires to obtain power from a power supply, and the ends of those wires connect to the sockets of the 4-pin power connector and the SATA power connector. Owing to required multiple sets of supply voltages and required multiple sets of wires connecting the DC voltage supply and the sockets of the 4-pin power connector and the SATA power connector, the internal wires of a power supply are numerous and messy, and the structure of the power supply is also complicated; thus, the fabrication cost thereof is higher. As users use various kinds of motherboards and peripherals, the manufacturer has to prepare multitudinous 4-pin power connectors and SATA power connectors to meet users; usually, one of them may be insufficient to supply all peripherals, and the other is surplus to cause waste, which besets users very much, and increases the cost of stock management.